The composer further described the concerto, saying, "The piece moves from inwardness to ebullience and from ambiguous and shifting harmonic language to a kind of tonality. That summer in Princeton New Jersey I remember as my happiest, the company of my friend John Sessions in the quartet, the wonderful music we were exploring, and the rich possibilities of the instrument I had always wanted to play." Harbison said he "never became an outstanding violist," but remarked, "When it came to writing a concerto for viola I wrote for the violist I never was, the true soloist, and for the instrumental timbres I felt to be most typical of the instrument, its tenor and alto voice, rather than its rather unnatural treble." He recalled, "When it was clear I would never have large hands I insisted on switching anyway and my first summer as a violist was spent in an informal chamber music group playing Haydn quartets. He later wrote in score program notes, "It had a commanding awkward size, a somewhat veiled slightly melancholic tone quality, and it seemed always in the middle of things, a good vantage point for a composer (which I already wanted to be)." However, Harbison was instructed to start on the violin due to the instrument's smaller size. Harbison had an early interest in the viola, describing it as his "instrument of choice" as a child. It was first performed by Jaime Laredo and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Hugh Wolff on May 18, 1990. The work was commissioned by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra with contributions from Meet The Composer and Reader's Digest. He is a champion of twentieth century music, especially composers he feels have been neglected, such as Luigi Dallapiccola.The Concerto for Viola and Orchestra is a viola concerto by the American composer John Harbison. Harbison has worked extensively as a conductor, particularly with the Cantata Singers (1969-1973) and the new-music group Collage (established in 1984). A great percentage of Harbison's works are for voice - either solo, small ensemble, or large chorus most notable among these are his Mirabai Songs (for soprano and percussion ensemble) and his operas, which (besides the aforementioned Gatsby) are: Full Moon In March (1977) and Winter's Tale (1974, rev. Occasionally, as in The Most Often Used Chords (Gli accordi più usati) of 1993, Harbison enjoys putting compositional restrictions on himself to ignite his imagination. Other concertos came later, including one for viola (1989), oboe (1991), cello (1993), and flute (1993). 1987), written for and premiered by Rose Mary Harbison. This, his first major work for orchestra, showed him an adept symphonic composer - a talent that he then applied to a string of concerted works, such as his Piano Concerto (1978) (recipient of the 1980 Kennedy Center Friedheim Award), and the Violin Concerto (1978-1980, rev. Harbison's music first garnered national attention with the Boston Symphony Orchestra's 1976 premiere of Diotima, a commission by the Koussevitzky Foundation. He is also a practiced writer on the art and craft of composition, and was recognized in his student years as an outstanding poet, later writing the libretto for his The Great Gatsby. At times, the harmonic palette brings to mind the sound of Prokofiev or the rigorous serialism of 1950s Stravinsky. His works embrace elements of jazz as well as the early and late Baroque styles of Heinrich Schütz and J. His music is published exclusively by Associated Music Publishers.Įxceptional economy and expressive range mark Harbison's music. Since 1969, he has been professor of music at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, necessitating his becoming a "summer composer." More than 30 of his compositions have been recorded on the Nonesuch, Northeastern, Harmonia Mundi, New World, Decca, Koch, Centaur, Archetype, and CRI labels. As influential as any teacher was Harbison's marriage to violinist Rose Mary Pederson - the inspiration for many of his violin pieces. Other of Harbison's teachers include Walter Piston at Harvard, Boris Blacher at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, and Earl Kim at Princeton. While a teenager he received musical guidance from Roger Sessions, one of his formative influences, while also developing considerable skills as a jazz pianist. Harbison was born in Orange, NJ, on December 20, 1938, and grew up in Princeton. John Harris Harbison is among the most prominent and prolific of American composers his highly varied and interesting output has earned him the moniker, "the great master of ambiguity." His principal works include three string quartets, three symphonies, the cantata The Flight Into Egypt (Pulitzer Prize, 1987), and three operas, including The Great Gatsby (commissioned by The Metropolitan Opera - premiered there, 1999).
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